Well, Florida would really get into artisanal grits. But here's the economic impact, too.

Most Read

In San Francisco, would-be real estate owners compete with highly paid tech workers for a small piece of a tiny housing supply. In New York, people with jobs that would make them owners in most other places wind up renting because they are outbid — not only by highly paid financial sector workers, but by international buyers investing for fun and profit.

Maybe you can muster the down payment demanded by the bank, but the building's co-op board can ask for so much more – if you won't pay the son of the Russian oligarch looking for a pied-à-terre will — and he won't complain if common fees go up in a few years.

In the face of this reality, we devised a thought experiment. What if all the new homebuyers in the city just up and moved? The city estimates 48,000 home sale transactions in 2013 at an average price of $625,000. The census estimates an average 2.6 people per city household. So these transactions represent 124,800 people which is roughly the population of Gainesville, Florida the largest city in northern central Florida, known for alligator-filled swamps, college football and that "Innocence of Muslims" Youtube movie.

If all the home buying New Yorkers pooled their 20% down payments, they would have $6.2 billion at their disposal. To buy 48,000 houses in Gainesville outright would cost $6.8 billion. Were those purchases financed, the down payments would run $1.4 billion.

With the New York City down payments, everybody in our fictional Gainesville (now a kind of redneck Williamsburg built on a swamp) could have a traditional 20% down mortgage on a house and they would have $4.8 billion left over. The total budget for Gainesville right now, including debt service, is $1.3 billion. Our hot-weathered hipster mecca would be debt-free and would have a massive surplus at its disposal in its first years. This could be squandered or invested, depending on how our real estate refugees choose to govern their affairs.

The problem, of course, is that people need New York City wages to pay for all of this. That means the banks have to move down south, too. Once that happens, the neighborhood is ruined.

Okay, Florida, you can keep your Gainesville. Would-be New York homeowners will just have to stand their ground in a small market with international appeal. As the last mayor impolitely said, the city is a luxury good, priced for those who can pay.